“The lesson learned today is that we, as leaders, failed in our most fundamental task: tactics.”
“You define a great victory as a failure?”
Trexler smiled. “Let’s call it an awakening. We’ve spent months and months refining a complex ballet of multiple ship squadrons, which we refer to as our basic fighting units, and the time’s been wasted.”
“You’re talking about the fighters.”
He nodded. “They’re history, Admiral, a waste of our time, energy, and resources. They’re the perfect sword to use against smugglers, which is essentially the only fighting the Empire has done for a long time, but they’re useless in battles of this scale. It’s time to park them, or better yet, send them to the Rebels. Let them waste their resources on manning them.”
“They have a long history of success.”
“And they will again, but not until the Empire is back to normal. Their weapons are puny, effective only against ships their own size. They only serve to distract.”
“Against cruisers, I agree. Enough of them can be a serious deterrent to a frigate.”
“I’ll trade you two frigates and all the fighters for one more cruiser,” Trexler stated. “And we’ve structured our crews all wrong. In the fighters alone, we have some 36 Terran officers in each squadron, each of whom is capable of piloting. We have another 20 or so Terran gunners on each frigate and cruiser. I hired pilots on Earth, but most of them have become gunners. Reba’s Raiders, with only a little training, were nearly as effective as our gunners. And she only had one pilot on each cruiser. Those are the keys, gentlemen. We have dozens and dozens of cruisers and frigates sitting idle because I don’t have enough men and women to pilot them. Reba’s cruisers were effective, and the guns were operated by the infantry.”
“You can’t send a cruiser out with just one pilot,” M’Coda said softly.
“I know. Today was a fluke – the fighting didn’t last long, but even with two or three pilots on each cruiser, we can increase our capital ships ten-fold. Easily. We just have to bring in more gunners, and I know just where to find an unlimited supply of them. I don’t even need trained soldiers. Youngsters experienced with video games would be just as effective, if not more effective.”
“Surely you won’t draft your children,” Chandrajuski said, leaning away from Trexler.
“To survive, I wouldn’t hesitate, but it’s not necessary. Earth has a vast pool of adults and young adults that would jump at the chance to go into space. We’ve been quietly interviewing officers, when it turns out we already have enough of them. We need to refocus our efforts.”
He grinned. “Wait until you see the recordings of the battle. Our fast ships were stunning, and the super squadrons… well, it’s humbling what two cruisers acting in concert can do.”
He looked deeply into Chandrajuski’s eyes. “Your engineers will have to study the recordings to see if I’m right, but I have the strong impression that it was not the Rebel guns that these super squadrons overwhelmed. It’s more like they overwhelmed the electrical systems of the cruisers. The shields just couldn’t keep up with the multiple, hard hits, and when they failed, the ships were torn apart. It happened so quickly that I suspect most of their guns were still operational when the ships blew.”
Chandrajuski’s head swung toward M’Coda, and M’Coda turned to face him, his upper hands idle for the moment.
M’Coda stated what was on both of their minds. “The Rebels, too, will study the recordings. If they adopt similar tactics, we will lose the advantage. In the long term, we might have to look at installing additional power plants on the ships in order to provide a reserve of power to the shields. In the short term, we might want to consider diverting power from non-essential systems.”
“If I’m right, gentlemen,” Trexler interceded, “we might want to consider diverting power from essential systems, as well. Do we need functioning lights and doors during a battle? Do we even need air conditioning? I don’t know, but everything needs to be looked at by experts. And ideally, we need computer programs that make it happen automatically. I can’t expect my pilots to have to worry about the air conditioning during a battle.”
Chandrajuski nodded, his great head moving up and down minutely. “We can do all that, and we will.” His gaze focused on Trexler again. “You frighten me, Ray.” Trexler raised his eyebrows in a question, and Chandrajuski continued. “In you and Reba and Mike, I see warriors. I’ve always considered myself to be a warrior, but I see now that I’ve been more of a policeman than a true warrior. It’s a struggle trying to keep up with you.”
“Policeman maybe, but a more apt term might be peacekeeper. You’ve spent a career keeping the peace, and I hope I can join you in that effort when this is all over. For the moment, our job is not to keep the peace but to wage war. Lots of people, good people, died out here today, and many more are going to die before we’re done. It’s a sad business, this killing, and I take no enjoyment from it. We are not heroes, we’re businessmen executing a business plan. It just so happens that our business plan entails killing the enemy in the most efficient way possible.
“But never forget: we’re just ingredients in the recipe. The master chef is the Queen. Her job is to mix us with the other ingredients to create a finished product that is peace restored. Then the killing will end.”
“She has been the key all along. Our efforts have not lost sight of that,” Chandrajuski said.
“They can’t. We will prosecute our business plan, but we in this room can never lose sight of the finished product. I’m certain she won’t let us, either.”
“So we focus on new strategies. The cruiser has become our first line of offense,” Chandrajuski said. “We’ll see to new tactics, and we must see to improvements to the ships to make them more survivable.”
Trexler nodded. “Mike is way ahead of us on that, but his plan is just getting started.”
“He has a plan?”
“He does. He’s asked Serge to explore the possibility of creating a large number of tiny little ships. The ships would only have a crew of three or four, and they might only carry one or two guns, but each gun would be as powerful as a gun on a cruiser. These tiny ships would be exceedingly hard to target, making them much more survivable.”
Chandrajuski considered for a time, then turned to M’Coda who said, “We’d be back to the shortage of pilots, but if development is far off, we have time to work on the issue. We should direct our thoughts to the coming battle at Aldebaran I, and we have to figure out how to secure Orion III against counter attack. We’re suddenly back to the issue of resources, or lack thereof.
“After this defeat, they will have to delay the next attack,” Chandrajuski continued, thinking out loud. “They lost considerable resources, resources that I suspect cannot be quickly replaced, and they need to reconsider tactics just as we do. I believe we have a little breathing room.”
“It’s also likely that they have only a limited number of trained Chessori crews,” M’Coda agreed.
“In which case we can recruit more gunners from Earth and spread our pilots out to more cruisers. Then we can begin the process of creating new and better tactics.”
Trexler leaned back on the couch to let them work out the details, but the more he thought about it, the more he questioned the underlying assumptions. What if they were wrong? What if they didn’t have a lot of time before the next battle?
He considered a plan of action based on that assumption, then spoke up. “You’re looking at it the way a policeman would look at it. You’re trying to get all your ducks in a row before you break the door down and rush in. Will you consider the thoughts of a warrior?”
Chandrajuski and M’Coda both stopped talking and turned to face him. M’Coda’s upper hands were still for a change.